Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-12-04

any pretentions TO self-respect will pa
tronize them. On the other hand, the |
bucket-sbop is by too many regarded as
O legitimate resort OF specQ ation, and
ruined traders, bankrupt merchants,
ambitious clerks, actors, foolish women,
Office boys, and others who would not
think of fighting the tiger" in Ann street
and associating with professional gam
blers, patronize place where they can
"invest few dollars in stocks and grain
under the delusion that it is simply an
ordinary speculative operation on a
small scale. New York is full OF bucket
shops, some OF which have ramihcations
throughout the country. There are no
less than twenty in New street Of this
city, and eight on Broadway, besides
others in various parts of the city. There
was formerly bucket-shop exclusively
for women, known as the "Three
| Graces," and there is now said to be one
OF the same sort on Urf6n Square, where
foolish women with gambling propensl-
ties throw their pin-money into the
ravenous nav of Expectation. Hun
dreds of women buy pool-tickets on the
horse races at Coney Island, Jerome
Park, Long Branch, and Saratoga IN the
summer, and the same class would be
likely TO patronize bucket-shop in the
winter.
THE BIO FOUR.
One big bucket-shop on lower Broad
way, known as the big Four, employs
fifty clerks and twenty-five telegraph
operators, and has branch offices in Bos-
| A Il - au, LnoIon1 Rf1f-
falo, and other points over wide stretch
OF territory east of the Mississippi, and
is said to do an enormous business.
Another establishment on Wall street
has private wires to numerous points IN
the eastern States, and as far north as
Montreal, employing twenty clerks
and twenty-five telegraph operators
keeping accounts with several mem
bers of the Stock Exchange,
while the proprietors are allowed
to be members of the Consolidated Ex-
change. The concern is said to do a
large business. The proprietors, Doran
q Wright, deny that they keep an ac-
count, but the Mercantile Agency OF
which Erastus Wiman, the well-known
financier, is the head, says that ). u.
Doran, the "President and one OF the
directors of this company, is reported
TO be ga man of considerable ability,
but the business is of the kind known as
bucket-shop business, though 1t might
claim to be something higher than that
For this reason the concern is not
in good repute in regular business
circles, and conservative houses would.
as a rule, be disinclined TO take risks on
them. Doran is believed to be worth
property, yet it is doubted if any tangi-
bic means of his could be discovered TO
satisfy claim" That is the peculiarly
of some of the big bucket-shops. There
is no one TO sue. One concern hides itself
under title of the Public Grain and
Stock Exchange" and is known simply
as the "Big Four" a perversion OF the
title usually given to certain big opera
tors in the Chicago Board OF Trade.
VERY PROFITABLE
A bucket-shop is usually very profit
able. 1t practically has the game In its
own hands. A bucket-shop can clay
down " at any time. A faro-bank can be
broken by Ell extraordinary run of luck.
but bucket-shop never. Every custom
ers profits are limited, and there are a
! hundred tricks whereby such concern
can syindle them. As an instance OF the
profitable nature of this business Todd,
whose Broad street establishment was re-
Gently raided on by the police, is reputed
to be worth 81, 100000 He owns the
Hotel Vendome, on the corner Of Broad
way and Forty-frst street, and another
f6rther down that great thoroughfare.
A former bucket-shopper is largely In
terested in the Hotel st. George, on
Brooklyn Heights, if he is not the sole
proprietor. These structures were cost
", and only men of wealth could have
erected them. Plenty of other bucket
shoppers have grown wealthy.
THE TRICKS.
A few of the tricks of the average
bucket-shop are worthy of mention.
AS already stated, bucket-shop can
clay down that is, suspend at any
time. and there is no redress. The most
ambitious swindler could hardly ask
more than this. The profits are limited
to about per cent-that is, no specu-
lator is allowed to win more than that
on deal, and TO win that he has over
come charge of one quarter Of l per
cent. in commissions. This device
naturally tends not only to increase the
commissions but to reduce any possible
chances of loss by the fluctuations. Quo
tations are falsified or deliberately sup
pressed, which is the same thing In
the interior the bucket-shopper often
: swindles his customers by saying that
the "wires are down and that orders
cannot be executed. This prevents the
Spectator from securing q profit, or it
completely deceives him as to the actual
quotations, which he learns soon enough,
however. when his slender margin is
wiped out. The bucket-shopper likes to
get an out-of-tOwn business, where he
| has practically control OF the "tickers,"
and by getting his customers as far as
} possible into one stock or option he can
by classifying the Quotations-which Is
| often done TO the extent of one half per
cent, or more-he can fleece them like q
: pickpocket at funeral fla city custom
err, posted ON the market by outside
tickers, wishes to buy or rising market
he usually finds the bucket-shopper ex-
I ceedingly busy or smitten with sudden
1 deafness, from which he only RECEIVERS
4 after the market has gone up another
"point or two, and the Spectator often
; has the same experience when he wishes
: TO sell short on declining market or
, 10 save a loss The bucks -shop only
: wants small margins, because they
: are more easily wiped out. They run
!, all the way from So to $1,000, usually
4 representing only ! per cent. on the
: stock OF grain traded in. Not few
l bucket-shoppers are. represented on the
Stock Exchange or the Chicago Board Of
Trade, and often they manipulate the
Q quotations there either by "wash" or
actual transactions, selling the market
up or down if the majority Of their GUS
S toners are "long or "short," as the
case may be, and it often pays them to
: make these transactions at loss for the
1 sake of the margins to be wiped
= out. A former Broad street es-
Q Enlistment is said to have raked in $780,
I 600 in day by sfh tricks, and larger
: ebons with N wider field foroDarationS